Want to be on a reality TV show, get an agent.
In the last year alone this has moved up to a whole different level. When reality TV fist hit the screens they used to take pretty much anyone who was interested in going on as long as they hit a demographic and signed a disclaimer.
These days most, if not all, of the people appearing on reality TV shows have been pre-screened and are represented by agents before they even get anywhere near the TV show. There is a whole industry based around wannabe reality TV show contestants, and the larger their existing social media following is the better chance they have of being selected.
There is also an insidious practice of the agents leaking news stories and photos every couple of days or weekly to keep the public interested and voting for them whilst they are still in the show to skew votes.
Do you remember Jess Shears?
She played an absolute blinder when she went in to Love Island for the 2017 show, and has managed to carry on that success ever since. During her time on the show her agent released (sorry there were ‘unconfirmed leaked’) naked photos, a sex tape, more naked photos and numerous posed shots. She was voted out early but was kept relevant to the show by constantly doing interviews, guest appearances and progressively posing for photoshoots with less and less clothing. All the time her Agent kept her constantly in the media spotlight and used that fame to endorse pretty much any product she was asked to via social media.
The frenzy around the show was so great that being voted off early actually gave her more space to interact with the public directly for longer to build an empire whilst the winners were still locked on the Island. By the end of it she had over 1m Instagram followers that she still advertises to every couple of days whilst the majority of the other contestants have disappeared.
And the shows love it as not only do they get more press from everything the contestants do some of them (looking at you Love Island) are contractually earning a commission of around 30% of any money the contestants make after leaving the show for a predesignated amount of time!
Keep an eye out for the next reality show and see if you can spot the agents working in the background, using the above tactics to publicise the ‘reality’ contestants who aren’t quite as random as you may have thought
